Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
Back in the day of dawning suspension manufactures had maintenance schedules based on hours of use, often only 50 to 100. Ride your bike three days a week for a couple of hours each time and that's 8 to 17 weeks of use, a short part of a season in many locals. Of course most every buyer didn't read this part of the manual and never did this maintenance until it became a repair lever job. (and by then with the rapid pace of suspension development often replaced the fork anyway).
If the current fork has a 500 hour maintenance interval I consider that really good. 500 hours divided by that same 6 hours a week and you have what is reasonably 2 years of use, in mots locals, between service. Andy
imagine if vehicles never improved upon the suspension design from the 50s & 60s. Ball joint life would be about an oil change internal nowadays. I still think bicycle suspension forks should not be so craptastic nor cost so much for the "upgrade". Especially the split suspension forks. They way as much as a 1950s Buick.